The long-life and appreciable ruggedness of LED light sources has produced a desire to use such light sources in automotive applications. Currently, these applications have been limited to stop lights and taillights and internal illumination. Recently developed LEDs capable of emitting white light have suggested that they might also be used for headlights. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,172 teaches the employment of multiple red, green and blue emitting LEDs arranged in a matrix, whose light is blended to emit a version of white light. The light output can also be varied by computer control and can accommodate directional variation by the vehicle with which they are used.
Newer versions of white light emitting LEDs employ blue and ultra violet-emitting LED sources in combination with a yellow light emitting phosphor, which blends the output into a white light
While the matrix versions of LED combinations provide different opportunities for forward lighting, it would be an advance in the art to provide light emitting diodes light source the replicated a point source.